it is only too certain that such occasional benefits A. D. 1622. have been heavily outweighed by the many and long continued injuries inflicted on our people, both in their temporal and spiritual concerns, by means of their connection with the inhabitants of the adjoining isle. To set forth at any length our reasons for such a conviction would be out of place here, as involving matter too extensive for the narrow limits of the present volume, and in its nature too much of a political character for a work relating exclusively, (as far as possible) to our ecclesiastical history. Enough however will have been found even in the preceding pages to justify our view of the subject; were it only in the plain historic statements which shew how entirely we owe to the proceedings of the princes and people of England, the introduction into Ireland of the fatal and oppressive yoke of Romish supremacy, with all its train of attendant evils. abuse of the phrase of England" One observation more however, connected Mischievous with this particular, before we close. The undue and excessive prevalence of English influence, Church and an English spirit among us, does indeed ap- noticed. pear to have been undoubtedly prejudicial to the interests of the Reformed Irish Church. The parliamentary designation of "the United Church of England and Ireland" would seem, at least in the minds of many, to have almost A. D. 1622. L-V wholly swallowed up our individuality; and that to such an extent, that many Irishmen in protesting against the usurpation and errors of the Church of Rome, seem to have got into a habit of thinking of themselves, and speaking of themselves as members of the "Church of England," although in reality they are, properly speaking, no more that, than members of the Church of India, or Nova Scotia, or Gibraltar, or New Zealand. Cherishing the tie which binds us together, in Church fellowship and godly communion, with the flock of our Saviour Christ in England, may we of both islands, love one another more warmly, pray for one another more constantly, bear one anothers' burdens more patiently, help one another more effectually in the service of the Lord, and of England" in labours for His Name's sake. But still, keep neither mo- we all the while in mind, that we of this isle, are not, by any right, subject to the authority of the Church of England: that the relationship existing is not one between mistress and handmaid, nor yet between mother and daughter, but that of sisters. And although the Church of the other isle may be in actual possession of many of the prerogatives of an elder sister; nay, altogether she were even able to prove her baptismal certificate to be of earlier date than ours; this we are to recollect does not bind our consciences by any means to obey and follow her The ther nor mistress, but sister, to that of Ireland. dictates in all things. Be it hers to rest content A. D. 1622. with sisterly affection and love in the Lord, without any unreasonable or contentious desire to have us agree in all our tastes and habits: and be it ours to display conduct and behaviour more and more worthy of such as are "children, not of a bondwoman, but of a free." For the ecclesiastical supremacy of the English crown over our branch of the Church Catholic militates not so against its spiritual independence, as to make it in the least subject to the Church of England or to its primate. The archbishops of Armagh and of Canterbury, alike recognizing the queen as their supreme head on earth by divine right, are, of right, alike independent in their spiritual offices of any other superior authority, except that of Him, who is "head over all things to the Church" universal. Ussher's as expressed When the agreement of the two Churches in Archbishop doctrine had been settled in the Convocation of views on 1634, by the reception of the English Articles this matter, in Ireland, it was further proposed by Bramhall, by him in the famous English bishop of Derry, that the the Convocanons also of England might be adopted for a. D. 1634. the use of the Irish Church; that so both might have the same rule of government as well as of belief. Whereupon,* "an objection to this • Mant, i. 495, 496, and Carte's Life of Ormond, there cited. cation of A. D. 1622. proposal was made with great earnestness by the Lord Primate, [Archbishop Ussher,] that it would appear to be the betraying of the privileges of a national Church; that it might lead to placing the Church of England in a state of absolute superintendence and dominion over that of Ireland; that it was convenient for some discrepancy to appear, if it were but to declare the free agency of the Church of Ireland, and to express her sense of rites and ceremonies, that there is no necessity of the same in all Churches, which are independent of each other, and that different canons and modes might coexist with the same faith, charity, and communion. By these and similar arguments" we are informed that "the Lord Primate prevailed with the Convocation, in which the prepossessions of many of its members inclined them to a favourable reception of his reasonings." But whatever may have been the prepossessions which then gave them a distaste for those English canons, the motive assigned by the learned primate was good and sufficient for his cause, and it is one worthy of serious and attentive consideration even in these recent times, and after the partial alterations in our ecclesiastical polity and relations with England which have been since introduced. It may not be even yet too late to look for the correction of the evils produced by the mis chievous effects of bad political influences upon ▲. D. 1622. our spiritual interests in bygone days. of good to from the feeling. Inclining, as our countrymen do in this age, some hope to a spirit of extreme nationality, accompanied the Church with increasing light and knowledge of their in Ireland, own past history,-and at the same time in their present state national character too religiously disposed, too of national warm-hearted, too sensible, for the cold sophisms of infidelity, may we not be permitted to indulge a hope, that ere long, when their thoughts revert more fully to contemplate the ancient days of their country's natural and spiritual freedom, they may at length be brought to regard with kindlier affection the true representative and successor of their own old Church of Ireland, and the scriptural doctrines and godly forms of religious worship which she proposes for their adoption. May we not hope that they will at length learn to consider more wisely the nature of that new communion into which they have in these latter ages incorporated themselves, and of that older kindred system indebted for its first insinuation into the country to Danish and Norman policy, and afterwards extended and promoted in Ireland by the influence of the Pale, in the twelfth and following centuries. The name of the Church of England is indeed connected in their minds with many thoughts of old national ill-feeling, and the mention of it |